Flashback: Vettel’s disastrous Singapore 2017 start shunt

Sebastian Vettel returns to the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend much in the same shape as he left the 2017 edition – under fire.

Two years ago, his title attack with Ferrari disintegrated after a startline collision with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and his own teammate Kimi Raikkonen. Now he arrives in Singapore after back-to-back wins for his current teammate, Charles Leclerc, and has faced vocal criticism again after his spin at Monza and clumsy rejoin, during which he collected the Racing Point of Lance Stroll.

But let’s take a look back at the 2017 edition, and remind ourselves of how it unfolded…

The scenario:

Vettel qualified on pole position, with title rival Lewis Hamilton – who was on a streak of back-to-back race wins – struggling down in fifth. Vettel had lost his championship lead in the preceding race at Monza, and was keen to redress an advantage.

A rain shower before the start only added to the drama, but the race began from a standing-start grid, rather than behind a safety car. As the lights went out, Raikkonen got by far the best getaway of the top four. He powered off the line and rocketed to the left-hand side of Verstappen.

However, just as he was about to move ahead, his right-rear wheel hit Verstappen’s left-front. This was because Vettel had swerved to his left, pincering the Red Bull between the Ferraris. Verstappen had made the second-best start, so he too was alongside Vettel, and the three cars all made contact – with Raikkonen’s car (by now on three wheels) being flicked into a half-spin and cannoning into the left-side of Vettel’s car.

Although he actually led through the opening sequence of corners, Vettel would spin due to the damage further around the first lap.

All three were elminated from the event, opening the door for Hamilton to win again and extend his points lead, an advantage he would retain to the end of the season.

In a poll of almost 2000 readers of James Allen on F1, 76% blamed Vettel for sparking the crash, with 17% calling it as a racing incident. Raikkonen was held least accountable at 2%, with 5% believing Verstappen was at fault.

What they said:

Vettel: “We did our start, everyone was trying to do his start, and then it ended up pretty bad for all three of us. It is part of racing. These things, they happen, not much you can do - so therefore not much point to try and look at them again and again.

"Every start is different and the way [it] happened you can look at it again and again, it is done. It was pretty unfortunate for all three of us, so we have to move on.”

Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari

Photo by: Sutton Images

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sutton Images

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, Max Verstappen, Red Bull, after the crash

Photo by: Steve Etherington / LAT Images

Verstappen was clear with who he blamed: “Mainly Sebastian. He started squeezing me, maybe he didn’t see Kimi on the left. That’s not an excuse – if you’re fighting for the world championship, you shouldn’t take those risks to squeeze someone that much.

“What does he expect? When you’re fighting for a world championship, you shouldn’t do that. It was not very clever. I tried to back out of it because I could see it coming, but the rear tyres are wider than the front so I couldn’t back out of it anymore.

“I was in the middle without doing anything wrong, I was just trying to have a clean start.”

Raikkonen, in true Kimi style, was merely phlegmatic about the whole episode: “I don’t think I could have done anything to change the end result apart from doing a bad start and not being there. And that’s not really my fault.”

F1's stewards took no action after a post-race investigation. But in terms of the world championship, it was a hammer blow to Vettel and Ferrari.

What would Vettel give for another pole here in 2019, and to get his season back on track…